I'm sorry I wasn't clearer in my earlier email. I will try to answer your questions and clarify our itinerary.

> You say you took the Hurtigruten from Kirkness to Bergen.......
> Okay, so is that from north to south or south to north? Any opinion
> on which is preferable?

Kirkenes to Bergen is from North to South. To us, there is no preference between going from North to South or vice versa. The stops are basically the same although the shore excursions that can be purchased before the trip differ in a few ways.

> Then you say Iceland...3 days....to Oslo........
> So you went from Kirkness to Bergen to Iceland to Oslo? Am I
> understanding you correctly?

We flew from New York to Iceland on Icelandair and spent three days there. We then flew from Iceland to Oslo and spent the night in Oslo. The next morning we flew to Kirkenes where we spent the night and then sailed the next day. When we docked in Bergen, we spent the night there and then took the train the next morning to Mirdahl where we picked up the Flam Train. When we got to Flam, we took a boat to our hotel where we stayed the night. The next morning we continued our trip to Oslo where we spent another night and then flew directly back to New York the next day.

> How long is the train ride from Bergen to Oslo? I'd love to combine
> some train travel in the trip.

If you take the train directly from Bergen to Oslo without the side trip on the Flam Train and can get the express, it is about five hours as I recall. If you get the local, it is around 7 hours.

> When you say their independent tour #7, to whom are you referring,
> the Flam railroad line?

No, it is a fly and cruise package. See the following http://www.coastalvoyage.com/main/tour7.shtml It includes all air, Reykjavik for two days (we added one), hotels in Bergen and Oslo, train from Oslo to Bergen, and the cruise. There are other Independent Vacations which do not include Iceland which can be found under NCV Vacations on the main page.

The Flam railroad is a separate tour which we added. It can be found along with two others under Pre/Post Tour Options on the main page. The URL for The Sognefjord tour that includes the Flam railroad is http://www.coastalvoyage.com/main/s_fjord.shtml

> Re: The second trip over New Year's....was that on the Hurtigruten
> again? Not too dark to view the scenery?

We had only one day of total darkness although on that day, there was a very short period of semi-daylight. Usually, daylight/twilight lasted from about 9am until around 2-3pm so we got some wonderful photos.

I wanted to spend this past New Year's in Iceland, but Iceland Air stopped flying out of NY from Nov to April. :-(

We love Iceland and have been there five or six times including that last two Thanksgivings (we are going again this Thanksgiving). It is a real pain that Icelandair stops flying out of New York between November and April, but we fly up to Boston and catch Icelandair out of there for Reykjavik. On our trips other than Thanksgiving, we have gone up to Lake Myvatn and to Akureyri as well as to Isafjordur. Of course, we have taken many of the bus tours out of Reykjavik also.

If you need or want any further information, please let me know.

Cynthia & Ivan Pomona, New York